For several hours on the 28th, the force was kept in front of these works, under insufficient shelter, and, allowed neither to advance nor retire, suffered considerable loss from the storm of shot and shell poured upon it; the 93rd lost 3 men killed and several were wounded. On the three following days, the 93rd, as did every other corps, lost several men in their encampment, from the guns of the enemy, which were placed in battery on the right bank of the Mississippi. We shall give the rest of this narrative in the words of the well-kept Record-Book of the regiment, which, we believe, quotes from the journal kept by Captain Charles Gordon, one of the early officers of the 93rd.
On the 1st of January 1815, long before daybreak, the army was in motion, and placed in position similar, but closer to the American lines than on the 28th of December. Forming in close column of regiments, the troops were ordered to lie down and wait for the favourable issue of the British batteries against the enemy’s works, the former opening with a brisk fire at daylight, but unfortunately all in vain. After a cannonade of several hours, the greater part of the guns were silenced and dismounted, and after a harassing day, the army was ordered to retire to its former bivouac. The 93rd lost 1 subaltern, 1 sergeant, and 6 rank and file killed, and several wounded.
Nothing was done for the next few days, though the army underwent great fatigue in the carriage of guns, stores, &c., and were continually annoyed by the batteries of the enemy on the opposite side of the Mississippi. On the afternoon of the 7th, the army had its hopes again raised by the orders issued for a general attack on the following morning, but, in the words of Captain Gordon, “as this expedition commenced, so did it terminate, in disappointment—utter disappointment and calamity.”
On the 8th of January the main body of the 93rd, flushed with the hope of measuring bayonets with their hitherto concealed opponents, advanced in compact close column towards the centre of the American lines, from which poured a tremendous fire of grape and musketry (including buckshot); but its patience and discipline were again put to the test when within about 80 yards of the enemy’s breastworks, by an order to halt. In this unenviable position, without permission or even power to fire with any effect whatever, with nothing visible but the murderous muzzles of thousands of American rifles, only the tops of the men’s caps being seen as they loaded and fired resting upon their parapets, a staff-officer was heard to exclaim as he hurriedly came up and rode away,—“93rd, have a little patience and you shall have your revenge.” But, alas! it was decreed otherwise; the regiment continued in its fatal position without receiving any further orders, officers and men being mowed down in all directions, until Sir John Lambert, the senior surviving general officer, thought it advisable to order the army to retire. In this most disastrous affair, action it could not well be termed, the regiment was dreadfully cut up.
The following is a list of the killed and wounded in this sadly mismanaged affair, in which the gallant 93rd probably lost more officers and men in a few hours than it did throughout the whole of the Indian Mutiny campaign, in which, as will be seen, it had perhaps hotter work to do than ever fell to the lot of any single regiment. The killed were Lt.-Col. Dale, commanding the 93rd, Captains Hitchins and Muirhead, Lieutenants Munro and Phaup (both prisoners, who died of their wounds), Volunteer Johnston, 4 sergeants, 1 drummer, and 115 rank and file, including those who died next day of their wounds. There were wounded, Captains Ryan, Boulger, M’Kenzie, and Ellis; Lieuts. John M’Donald, Gordon, Hay, Graves, M’Lean, Spark, and D. M’Pherson, Volunteer John Wilson, 17 sergeants, 3 drummers, and 348 rank and file. It is sad to think that neither gain nor glory resulted from this dreadful carnage.
The army having re-embarked, the fleet weighed anchor again on the 7th of February, and made for the mouth of the Bay of Mobile, where the greater part of the army disembarked on the Dauphin Isle. Preparations were here being made to attack the fortified town of Mobile, when news arrived that preliminaries of peace had been signed between Great Britain and the United States. After being encamped about six weeks, the army was ordered to embark for Europe. The 93rd, at least the fragment left of it, arrived at Spithead on the 15th of May 1815, and being in too weak a state to take part in the stirring events taking place on the Continent, it was ordered to Ireland, disembarking at Cork on the 28th of May, and proceeding to Birr Barracks.
The second battalion having been disbanded at Sunderland, the ranks of the first battalion were filled up by a large draft of non-commissioned officers and privates from the former. As the history of the regiment is comparatively uneventful up to the time of the Crimean War and Indian Mutiny, we shall rapidly run over its movements previous to these stirring periods.
The 93rd appears to have moved about successively from Birr to Athlone, Nenagh, and Limerick, sending out numerous detachments, and in June 1818, to have proceeded to Dublin, where it remained till the following May (1819). On leaving Dublin, it was again detached to the southern counties, where it was frequently called upon to perform the most delicate and harassing duties.
Between the 3rd and 8th of November 1823, the regiment embarked at the Cove of Cork in four transports for the West Indies, without having lost a single man by desertion. It may be taken as a proof of the continued good conduct of the regiment during the eight years it was stationed in Ireland, that Lieutenant-General Lord Combermere, in his general order issued on its departure, stated that
“No regiment in the service stands in greater estimation, or has been more conspicuous for its discipline and soldier-like conduct, than the 93rd.”